In fact, the calculation has been done very carefully by Hansen and co-workers, taking all factors into consideration, and when compared with observations of
ocean heat storage over a period long enough for the observed changes to be reliably assessed, models and observations agree extremely well (see this article and this article.).
Not exact matches
Additionally, the paper supports the theory that
heat storage in the deep
ocean may be partly responsible for the parallel pause in Earth's surface temperatures
over the past 13 years.
Future topics that will be discussed include: climate sensitivity, sea level rise, urban
heat island - effects, the value of comprehensive climate models,
ocean heat storage, and the warming trend
over the past few decades.
Others include, the role of the Sun (being the main
heat source), the vast
oceans which cover
over 70 % of the Earth's surface (and the natural factors which determine the
storage and release of CO2 back into the atmosphere), water - vapour being the dominant greenhouse gas comprising 98 % of the atmosphere, the important role of low - level clouds which is thought to be a major factor in determining the natural variation of climate temperatures (P.S. Significantly, computer - models are unable to replicate cloud - formation and coverage — which again — injects bias into model).
It seems that those who fear AGW (or at least some of them) do admit that it is not realistic to expect a planetary atmosphere such as ours to warm up
oceans of water
over the timescale required by AGW theory because of the huge volume and density of that water and thus the
heat storage differentials.
This was my mental equation dF = dH / dt + lambda * dT where dF is the forcing change
over a given period (1955 - 2010), dH / dt is the rate of change of
ocean heat content, and dT is the surface temperature change in the same period, with lambda being the equilibrium sensitivity parameter, so the last term is the Planck response to balance the forcing in the absence of
ocean storage changes.
Christy is correct to note that the model average warming trend (0.23 °C / decade for 1978 - 2011) is a bit higher than observations (0.17 °C / decade
over the same timeframe), but that is because
over the past decade virtually every natural influence on global temperatures has acted in the cooling direction (i.e. an extended solar minimum, rising aerosols emissions, and increased
heat storage in the deep
oceans).
A: The volume integral (
heat balance equation) as presented in Pielke (2003) http://blue.atmos.colostate.edu/publications/pdf/R-247.pdf suggests that the changes in
ocean heat storage averaged
over a year are a snapshot of the radiative imbalance at the top of the atmosphere.